Buffing wheel and process of making same



Jan. 11, 1938. R. A. GOODMAN BUFFING WHEEL AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME Filed March 14, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet l ATTORNEY Jan- 11, 1938. R. A. GOODMAN BUFFING WHEEL AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME Filed March 14, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 0.o fw.,

INVENTOR /Q/sssu 5am/MN ATTORNEY Patented Jan. 11, 1938 i f UNirfl-:fo STATES PATENT OFFICE VRussell A.Goodman, Cleveland, Ohio Application March 14, 1936, Serial No. 68,912

1 Claim.

The'presentinvention relates to the manufacture of bufting` wheels such as used in buiiing, polishing and coloring articles, and has as its objectfa! new and improved method of making buls and also an improved construction of the buff.

The usual type of buff is made from a plurality of plies of cloth which are laid upon one another with the threads running in varied directions and from which are cut circular blanks with a central shaft opening. These blanks are sewed, usually with a coarse spiral stitch, and are then ready to be mounted as units in a complete buffing wheel. This method of making buffs is expensive and wasteful, both in the manufacture of the buff and also in operation. One of the main objections to this form of buff is that only a portion of the wheel can be used and the center is waste which has a small salvage value. In the use of bufiing wheels, the speedof rotation is very high and as the buff wears away the surface speed is reduced to a point when it is no longer profitable to use it. To avoid this, the wheel is discarded when it is partially worn away, with the consequent loss of the center.

Other methods of making circular buffs have been proposed and some have gone into limited use. The method most commonly used is that which has been described, as it has heretofore been considered the most economical and efficient method.

The present invention has for its object a method of making a buff which will obviate the loss of material and will give a buif in which substantially all of the cloth may be usefully employed. It is a further object to devise a method of making buffs by which waste will be obviated in the manufacture of the wheel.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the method which has been found to be the most satisfactory for the purposes specified, and while the drawings and description are fully detailed in order to explain the best known method and the preferred construction, it will be understood that the same are subject to modification and improvement within the scope of the invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 represents a plurality of layers of cloth laid up for cutting and illustrating a method of cutting the material;

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2 2 of Fig. l;

Figs. 3 and 4 are views illustrating the blocks or blanks which are cut from the original cloth, showing two methods of stitching;

Fig. 5 is a buif wheel made up from the blanks illustrating the-method by which the ring is first made roughly and then cut to form;

Fig. 6 shows a cross-section of a unit illustrating a-method of `clamping the ring to a holder;

Fig. 7 is Fig. 8 is Fig. 9 is a detail on the line 'l-l of Fig. 5; a complete wheel; a modified form of assembly by which the excessive thickness at the seams is avoided;

and

Fig. 10 is an edge view of the device shown in Fig. 9.

In the manufacture of the improved buffs, a plurality of plies of material, usually cotton cloth, are laid up in along strip on a table or bench. In laying the material, the pieces composing the layers are usually placed in such manner that the threads in the several layers are at angles to each other.

Any number of plies l may be laid up,

the drawings illustrating twelve plies merely by way of illustration.

In the generally accepted method of manufacture, the material is now cut into roughly circular disks or blanks in which a central shaft opening is cut. This method is wasteful of material and labor. By my process, the plies are ing which is to be left in the center. The illustration of the cuts in Figure 1 is merely to show one manner of cutting as the arrangement may be changed and the number of blocks will vary with the size and dimensions of the completed ring.

The blocks 4 are preferably sewed at this time, either longitudinally as shown at 5 in Figure 3 or transversely as shown at 6 in Figure 4. The requisite number of blocks are then assembled into polygonal form with the inclined edges in contact. If the edges are overlapped as shown in Figure 5, the overlapping 'edges can be sewed as shown at 8 in Figure 7. After the ring of blocks is assembled its outer edge is trimmed to circular form along the line 9 and any suitable form of clamp or holder is attached to the center. A metal crimping ring l0 is shown for the purpose, but this is only illustrative.

By this method of procedure, it is possible to construct a ring-shaped bu'ing wheel with a material.

The ring so secured is operable withdicated by the numeral l2, are usually mounted upon a shaft I3, as shown in Figure 8, any suit-V able form of chuck being employed for this purpose. In this view the Wheel is broken away to show the spacing of the disk units about the shaft. The side plates I5 may be apertured to permit the circulation of air through the center of the wheel.

In orderjto avoid the thick overlap shown in Figure 7, where the blocks of full thickness are spliced, it is possible to make the individual blocks somewhat thinner and to stagger the seams as shown in Figures 9 and 10. This system may be extended to any desired extent to reduce the overlaps accordingly. These views also illustrate an optional form of sewing in which the entire disk is given the usual spiral sewing. If desired outer plies I6 may be added to either formof buff section to cover the surfaces of the section.

It is obvious that modications and changes may be made in the procedure of manufacture and the construction of the mshed wheel, the invention being characterized by the fact that the buff wheel units are made from substantially trapezoidal or keystone shaped blocks assembled in ring form with the large central opening giving maximum use of the fabric and also the additional cooling eiect.

What is claimed is:

A ring-shaped buiic wheel having a large central opening substantially equivalent to the waste area at the centerof a standard buif wheel, said ring being composed of a plurality of trapezoidal blocks of multi-ply fabric sewed together and assembled with their inclined edges in overlapped sewed relation and with their smaller parallel sides defining the large central opening.

. RUSSELL A. GOODMAN. 

